The Pearl Abyss team says many players naturally read Crimson Desert as an action RPG, but the studio built progression without levels, experience points, or traditional stat allocation – instead, artifacts and gear define how your character develops.
A lot of players are treating Crimson Desert as one of the biggest launches of early 2026. Pearl Abyss has shown the game repeatedly, highlighting an open-world fantasy adventure packed with systems and activities, which is exactly why many assume it is an action RPG. The developers, however, have reiterated that they do not frame the project as a role-playing game: while it does include some genre-adjacent features, the way progression works is deliberately different from what players typically associate with an RPG.
In the Dropped Frames podcast, Crimson Desert marketing director Will Powers explained why the team avoids the RPG label. In his view, calling something an RPG comes with expectations such as character creation, defined experience-point systems, and level progression. Powers argues those are precisely the kinds of features players would look for, and they simply are not part of Crimson Desert. At the same time, he acknowledges the game still contains plenty of elements that people often associate with RPGs, including different ways of interacting with NPCs.
Artifacts Replace XP in the Progression Loop
The core distinction is how you grow. Progression is built around items called “Abyss Artifacts”, which unlock nodes in the player character’s skill tree. These artifacts are not handed out only at major story beats: players can discover them while exploring secret areas, by clearing enemy groups scattered across the map, and by defeating massive boss encounters. Powers stresses that this is not “experience points” in the strict sense, because you are not spending stat points. Instead, you are opening up the kind of character progression that matches how you want to play.
What about stats, then? Powers says Crimson Desert does not tie attribute growth to level-ups. Character capability is driven by equipment, and not through a Diablo-style loot chase. The idea is to seek out weapons and armor pieces across the world, sometimes in special locations, and let that gear shape what your character can do.
Powers also pushed back on another common comparison: he says Crimson Desert is not a soulslike. The game is not designed around repeatedly re-running fights to refine execution just to advance. Players will have access to various boosters, such as food dishes and combat revive items, and they can leave an area and explore elsewhere if they hit a wall. The broader goal, he suggests, is to avoid locking the game into a single genre and instead deliver an exploration-and-combat fantasy experience that works on its own terms. The current release plan targets March 19, 2026.
Source: 3DJuegos, Dropped Frames, GameStar
